FAIRVIEW VILLAGE — Coming off of Tuesday night’s state playoff berth-clinching win for the boys’ team at Methacton, their girls headed into Wednseday’s game with similar expectations.

Unfortunately, the Methacton faithful went home with a different result. The Warriors dropped a heartbreaker to lower-seeded West Chester Rustin tonight, 54-49.

It didn’t seem like things were going to be even that close early on. Methacton stumbled out of the gate, leading to an early 13-2 deficit in the first quarter.

The Warriors rallied, closing out the first quarter on a 7-0 run, and stretched it to 11-0 at one point in the second to pull ahead 13-11, behind the scoring exploits of Sarah Sherman, Jenna Carroll and Kelsey Watson. Methacton went into the half up 22-20.

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Watson, Sherman and Carroll scored six, five and five in the half, respectively.

“We came out strong in the first quarter,” Rustin coach Leah Kim said. “Methacton’s a solid team, all-around. I told them beforehand, ‘It’s going to be up and down, and it’s going to be (about) how you guys respond to it.’

“They responded just as I had hoped,” she said.

The Golden Knights turned it around, outscoring the Warriors 15-8 in the third and played even basketball with Methacton in the last frame. Adashia Franklyn led the way for WC Rustin with 13 points in the half.

Franklyn led everyone with 16 for the game.

“This is a tough one,” Methacton coach Craig Kaminski said. “We still have a chance to get to states, but now we have to do it the hard way. It’s a tough one to swallow because these girls wanted it. We ran into a team that is playing good ball right now.”

“They shot extremely well,” he said, referring to the Golden Knights’ play. “For us, it comes down to a lot of the little things.”

“We weren’t tough enough inside on (Franklyn), and we didn’t do a good job rebounding ... There were a couple of minutes where we zoned in and out, missing layups or committing costly turnovers. Those little things add up throughout the course of the game,” he said.

Despite the loss, Methacton wasn’t without a few positives.

Sarah Sherman led the Warriors with 14 points, and Kelsey Watson chipped in with 10 and contributed with stingy defense throughout the contest. Guard Kelly Glatthorn broke out of a 0-for-12 slump from the field dating back to Methacton’s loss to Spring-Ford in the PAC-10 championship game with two three-pointers in the fourth that kept Methacton close.

“We didn’t play badly,” Kaminski said. “We came back very nicely. We were down in the beginning of the game and we didn’t get rattled. We composed ourselves.”

“We’ve been in this position before,” he said, referring to Methacton’s loss to Boyertown in the PAC-10 championship playoffs. “It’s up to the coaching staff to make sure we don’t lose sleep over it.”

“We’ll get right back out there tomorrow and build on it,” he said. “We need two wins to get in.